Book Reviews

This book is awesome. Described simply, it’s about understanding the psychology of other people and therefore learning to treat them better with the intention of getting the best out of them. The book is so good that I had to add it to the recommended reading list in my newly published book, To Become an Investment Banker.

The principles in this book can be applied to raising children, developing employees in one’s company, selling and any other interpersonal interactions. As usual, I will share some of the useful insights that were relayed. The book was also full of interesting examples and anecdotes but if you want these you will need to purchase it.

Criticism is dangerous and futile. Research has shown that animals that are rewarded for good behavior learn faster than those punished for behaving badly – the same can be applied to people.

The human desire to be great and to feel important is as necessary as the desire to eat.

Showing sincere appreciation can change a person’s life.

Speak to people in terms of THEIR wants, interests and motivations. This is very important in pitching ideas and selling.

Smile. Smiling gives to the receiver without taking away from the giver.

Remember names! That is the most important thing to any one person. I might also add: pronounce names correctly!

Listen! I need to do more of this. It can pay richly to let the other person do most of the talking.

Compliment people even if you want nothing in return; do it all the time and everywhere.

Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.

Never tell someone that they are wrong directly. Do it gently and with tact. Admit if you are wrong: quickly and emphatically.

If you are not seeing eye-to-eye with someone ask them a series of questions to which they have to reply yes with the ultimate result that they say yes to what you wanted them to say yes to in the first place.

Try honestly to see the other person’s point of view.

Return an insult with kindness.

Sympathy is universally craved.

Dramatize your ideas.

Throw challenges to people; bringing out their competitive spirit generally leads to improved results and productivity.

Talk about your own shortcomings and mistakes before criticizing someone else.

Praising someone even for the slightest improvement can lead to a large bounce in their enthusiasm. Abilities wither under criticism, they blossom with encouragement.

Give people a fine reputation to live up to. If you let on that you think they are incompetent, you won’t get a positive result.

It wasn’t really what I was expecting. I wanted a series of well-explained investing tips. Instead, I found that the book had too many examples of what happened in the past e.g. during the recession of the 1930s and in the early 1970s when the edition I was reading was published. It wasn’t just general historical info that one can learn from but a mish mash of too much data from days gone by.

​​I didn’t feel engaged at all, however, that could partly be due to the fact that I read it immediately after reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, a truly first class book.

I believe in the wisdom of older people regardless of wealth or educational background. (Most) old people are precious, you can't buy their life experiences, you can only hope to share in some of them. In this book, John D. Spooner shares a series of letters that he has written to his grandchildren to prepare them for "life"

Both my grandfathers died before I was even two so I took to thinking of JD Spooner as a sort of surrogate grandfather, or papa as his grandchildren refer to him, as I read this book. I won't go into detail regarding all the examples he gave, however, I would like to share the following lessons I got from the book in the hopes that one or two might touch you. These are not exact quotes, they are just notes I took as I listened to the audiobook.

Dare to be different

Human nature never changes

Debt can be good but it can also be downright wicked

Build your own team, don't just take on your parents' team of advisors

Your trustee, lawyer and money manager should all be different people

Always pay your lawyer by the hour not as a percentage of your estate

We can all get jammed up in life no matter how smart we think we are or how well we've planned

Make yourself memorable

If you're doing well for your company ask for stuff: an expense account, a company car, more holiday

Fear always replaces greed and vice versa in the financial markets

You can't save some people from themselves

All in life is negotiable

Burn no bridges

Bet on people not on fads or concepts

No one's going to make you rich except yourself. Don't bet the ranch on someone else's dream

Think about how you present yourself. It's in this part of the book you realize how wealthy the Spooner family is. Mimi (papa's wife) recommended a good Channel suit as part of one's wardrobe - I don't think I have ever even been to Chanel (or any designer of that calibre) and thought of buying, maybe I'm too much of a scrooge!

Do your due diligence. Trust but verify (he quoted Ronald Reagan)

Never spend the money until it's in your pocket

Cultivate a sense of flexibility

Make your work your play

If you arrive economically, to hell with it, go first class all the way, you've earned it, don't feel guilty about it

Share your wealth

In assessing companies, get to know the receptionist

Scared money never wins

Don't take yourself too seriously

No matter how busy you get, exercise

Trust your network, not the internet

Always follow through on promises

Word of mouth if not forced can be one of the best marketing techniques

Don't forget what you tell people because they'll remember

Stay in touch with people from your past, it's people who make life extraordinary

Love is extremely important in all its forms

You never know anyone until you deal with their money

Suck that lemon dry - I still don't know what this means!

This book is a bible for the ups and downs of modern day life and it doesn't take long to read! The audio version is only five hours.

If you don't get any of the above, get the book, it will be one of the best "investments" you make all year.​Some of my thoughts:I disagreed with his property investing strategy. He paid all cash when, I think, the genius of property investing in the developed world lies in leverage, using other people's money - but that's another blog on its own.

When he covered bonds, JD Spooner didn't cover index-linked bonds, linkers. He simply said that it is equities that keep up with the cost of living, however, Linkers also keep up with inflation. Perhaps this was taking a step too far into high finance.

In the section on staying in touch with his past, JD Spooner talked about a friend of his from high school that was a plumber in a town that he moved to. He called the guy to help him out with his plumbing. I wondered, how does he feel when he's in touch with people from his past that haven't achieved nearly as much as he has: he's a multimillionaire investment advisor and author of several bestsellers. In this book, "papa" talks about owning several million dollars of Citigroup stock before it tanked and that would only be one stock in an extensive portfolio, I expect. His friends must revere him, how does he relay to them that he's still the same old guy? This is the only query that remained outstanding by the time I finished the book.